Thursday, August 4, 2011

Kingsoft Security has released a new computer security product which can intensively scan a Windows computer to detect and remove malware, using Kingsoft Cloud Security Engine and Kingsoft V10 Antivirus Engine, patch Windows vulnerability, clean junk files and optimize Windows to improve performance. While this might all sound very familiar, thanks to the bazillions of cheap one-click optimizers, Kingsoft PC Doctor is an entirely different package.

When you run Kingsoft PC Doctor for the first time, it immediately starts scanning for unpatched vulnerabilities on your system, and presents a report. The report lists a description of the vulnerability found, the name of the patch and the date when the patch was issued.

This is on Windows 7, 32-bit without Service Pack 1, so the high number of risks indicated is expected.

Clicking on the Repair button automatically downloads and installs the Microsoft issued patch, without you having to go through Windows Update. After installation you are presented with an option to restart the machine, which you can postpone to later.

After you have tackled this, the main program window opens. At the top are 6 icons that take you to 6 different sections on the program, each of which contain multiple tools and utilities.

The Anti-Trojan tool is a real-time scanner that utilizes the V10 Antivirus Engine on your local machine and Kingsoft’s Cloud Security Engine to offer defense again malicious Trojan viruses. The Anti-Trojan tool can coexist with whatever anti-virus program you are using on your machine. Its function is not obstructed nor does it obstruct your regular anti-virus software from performing its own functions.

The Optimizer consist of a Windows Startup manager that enables you to speedup Windows startup by disabling unwanted processes and programs from starting with Windows. The Optimizer also gives you an easy access to Windows services that are configured to auto-start, as well as Windows scheduled tasks. The ability to see all scheduled tasks – both manually added by the user and automatically installed by programs (for instance, Google update) – is a big plus for Kingsoft PC Doctor.

The Cleaner is your regular junk file cleaning utility. It can remove browser cache, history, cookies, temporary folders, recent file history of a media players and a few other software. It can also remove invalid registry items, entries to orphaned DLL files, incomplete file associations and a few other stuff.

There is also a ‘large file cleaner’. This function lists the top 100 large files on your hard drive offering the user an option to review them and remove if not needed, thereby freeing up disk space. Another option unique to Kingsoft PC Doctor is the ‘OS thinner’ function. This lists unwanted stuff that comes pre-loaded with a Windows computer such as default wallpapers, sample videos, sample music, help files and software uninstallation backups. Aside from the backups, and wallpapers depending on whether you use the default ones, the rest is pretty much useless and can be safely removed.

The Tools section has two tools – a traffic monitor and a system booster. The traffic monitor is a fantastic utility. It not only allows you to monitor process and programs that are currently using the network, but you can also block them or impose speed restrictions on them – individually. It also records your traffic statistics including uploads and downloads which you can browse by day, week, month or custom time period.

There is also a thin unobtrusive floating toolbar that shows the download and upload speed of your network and current CPU usage. Hover the mouse over the toolbar and a small window pops open showing the top three applications using the most CPU, memory and network. The toolbar can be dragged and relocated anywhere on the screen.

The System booster is a basic task/process manager that allows you to kill processes. The ‘one click speedup’ button suggest you a list of programs that have been idle for a long time and hence can be closed.

Currently labeled as beta, Kingsoft PC Doctor appears to be a very good program that can be used to strengthen the defense of your computer against malware, apart from being a very good system cleaner and optimizer. Definitely a keeper.

7 comments:

I do like the level of control this software gives you, but I would not recommend it to beginners looking for a quick "auto-fix". It suggested to "clean" several vital things on my system. Such as Eset Smart Security service (which is virus killer and firewall) and drivers for a printer it didn't recognize.

It also had a few false positives under trojans, but that's to be expected. It just brings me back to how dangerous this can be if you don't know what you're doing and are unfamiliar with reading reports such as this.

Again - great tool, but .. be sure to keep a cool head when choosing what to "clean" or "repair".

I never use 'auto-fix' feature on any program - don't trust them. I guess most auto-fix programs shouldn't be recommended to beginners or anyone who doesn't know the inside-out of their system. The irony is, auto-fix programs are created for exactly these kind of users. :)

The only disadvantage for me was that same unobtrusive floating traffic monitor toolbar, that was left open by default after I installed the program. But soon I found a solution, just by right-clicking on it and disabling the checked options in the menu. Alongside with Comodo Internet Security, it belongs to my "best free pc maintenance and protection software" list.

Yesterday I loaded Kingsoft's PC Doctor onto my fairly old Dell running XP sp3. I had a few "issues" which I could not resolve with the performance of my PC and after an hour with the Kingsoft sets of facilities everything was just right with my system. I agree "Security" issues malware and so on can always be improved, but hey, I already have Spybot, and a Fully working Virus software running. I give Kingsoft 4/5 points for this AND its Free.....